The nation's newest environmental satellite, GOES-12, is being readied
for operations, NASA and the Commerce Department's National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today.

GOES-12 is equipped with an advanced instrument for real-time solar
forecasting. The Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) aboard the satellite will
enable forecasters and scientists to detect solar storms that could
impact billions of dollars worth of assets.

"I want to offer my congratulations to the SXI partners on their
significant achievements," said Dr. Richard Fisher, Director of the
Sun Earth Connection Division at NASA Headquarters. "I view the
initiation of the new SXI serivce as a victory for the national
scientific research program. Yesterday's research mysteries have
become the subject of today's report on space weather conditions," he
said.

The instrument will take a full-disk image of the sun's atmosphere
once every minute. NOAA and the U.S. Air Force will use the images to
monitor and forecast the sources of space weather disturbances from
the sun. The images will enable forecasters to predict disturbances to
Earth's space environment that can destroy satellite electronics,
disrupt long-distance radio communications or surge power grids.

The ability to monitor and forecast solar disturbances is valuable to
operators of military and civilian radio and satellite communications
systems, navigation systems, astronauts, high-altitude aviators and
scientists.

The SXI is a small telescope that makes use of advanced technology and
grazing incidence optics to allow it to see the sun's outer atmosphere
or corona in X-rays. SXI lets solar forecasters see phenomena they
couldn't otherwise view, such as coronal holes, whose high-speed winds
cause geomagnetic storms; and to infer solar activity occurring behind
the sun's edge, or limb. X-ray images are more accurate than white
light imagers for identifying the location of flares. "NASA is excited
about providing another fine tool for the NOAA team to use in weather
operations, including space weather forecasts," said Martin A. Davis,
NASA GOES program manager at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in
Greenbelt, Md. GOES-12 represents a continuation of a 27-year joint
program between NASA and NOAA.

The United States operates two environmental satellites in
geostationary orbit 22,300 miles over the equator. GOES-12 was
launched on July 23, 2001, and placed into on-orbit storage.
Controllers at NOAA's Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland,
Md., are commanding the satellite out of storage and preparing it for
operations.

NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
operates the GOES series of satellites. After the satellites complete
on-orbit checkout, NOAA assumes responsibility for command and
control, data receipt, product generation and distribution. GSFC
manages the design, development and launch of the spacecraft for
NOAA. The SXI was built by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala.

The images taken by the SXI will be available in real time to the
public via the Internet through NOAA's National Geophysical Data
Center website at: